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That $10 shirt might seem like a bargain. It’s on-trend and will be easy to replace when it wears out in six months. But what is the real cost of cheap, fast fashion to the people who make it and to the environment?

Sorting Party, a collaborative class art project at the University of Saskatchewan, is challenging perceptions of fashion.

The politics, sociology and art of used clothingBack to video

Mindy Yan Miller, who has long used clothing in her artwork, began Sorting Party because she was concerned by the over-production of clothing and our relationship to fast fashion.

“I hope people start to look at their clothing, how they use clothing, how they might buy and get rid of clothing, and start to think about the people who are making the clothing,” said the internationally recognized artist.

University of Saskatchewan women’s and gender studies professor Joan Borsa invited Yan Miller to work with her senior-level class, which explores feminism in the visual arts. Borsa says the artist’s work helped her class learn in a new way.

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Women’s Studies Prof Joan Borsa and Canadian artist Mindy Yan Miller take a look at the clothing that thirty-five students from the WGST 324.3 class–which is entitled Rebels With A Cause: Feminism and the Visual Arts–sorted and piled into categories based on country of origin. The piles will remain on display until the evening of March 6 in the Arts Building on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon on February 26, 2018.Michelle Berg/Saskatoon StarPhoenix

“I thought it was a great idea for students to be able to do something physically. The energy and sense of community that occurred was really gratifying,” said Borsa.

Sorting Party began with 50 bags of used clothing donated by the Village Green Thrift Store. Along with Borsa and Yan Miller, students made piles based on country of origin. Issues around sustainability and the environment are embedded in the project.

“What happens when there’s all of this excess?” asked Borsa.

The reality is that most of our worn out, torn, stained and faded goods can’t be re-sold. Thrift stores are overwhelmed.

The Village Green has a sign on its back door asking people to limit their donations; The Quincy Street Salvation Army in Brooklyn, New York processes about five tons of outcast clothing every day. Much of our donated clothes end up in the landfill or are shipped to developing countries in Africa and Asia as charitable donations. But the amount of clothing actually used there is debatable. Likely, we are providing garbage for landfills overseas.

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“What happens when there’s all of this excess?”

Yan Miller said it’s hard to come to terms with what jobs in textile factories mean for women in developing countries. It’s a source of income but it comes with substandard working conditions.

“The fact is, they just have to go faster and faster because the turnaround for when things have to be produced is really, really short.”

Textiles were once sacred and embedded with meaning. The textile industry was the first to become mechanized in the 18th Century. Surges in technological innovation and cheap labour have made dramatic production increases possible. And, thanks to clothing consumption patterns, fast, cheap fashion shows no signs of slowing down.

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Canada’s textile industry shrinks every year as work is outsourced for cheap labour and materials. At one time, Saskatoon had four thriving clothing manufacturers; only one remains. According to Saskatoon fashion designer Laurie Brown, “it’s a huge problem and no one really pays attention to it, either.”

Brown and other Saskatoon designers source their textiles from Canadian companies. Smaller, local designers sew everything themselves, while larger businesses branch out and hire people in the city or elsewhere in Canada.

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